AUGUSTA (AP) – Two men have been sentenced after pleading guilty to charges stemming from a plot to smuggle heroin into the state prison, the Maine attorney general’s office said Friday.

Emmanuel Reynolds, 24, of Winslow, was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison and Levar Green, 27, of Benton, was sentenced a week earlier to five years. Both were sentenced in Kennebec County Superior Court.

Each of the men pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated trafficking in heroin and conspiracy to commit aggravated trafficking of heroin, the attorney general’s office said.

Prosecutors said Reynolds transported bulk heroin from Portland to Waterville in February, and Green was involved in repackaging the heroin in balloons that were to be smuggled into the state prison, which is located in Warren.

Police seized 40 grams of powdered heroin, packaged in small, colorful balloons, during a raid at a home in Waterville in March. Police obtained a search warrant after the arrest last month of two women who were discovered bringing drugs into the prison.

Court documents say Reynolds was on probation for a conviction of trafficking in illegal drugs at the time of his latest arrest. Probation was revoked during his sentencing by Justice Carl Bradford.

Green was sentenced by Justice Nancy Mills.

Police said at the time of the raid in Waterville that smugglers hide the balloons under their tongues and pass them to prisoners while kissing. Prisoners would swallow the packages and retrieve them later.

Police estimated the drugs would have sold for $20,000 on the street, and as much as $50,000 inside the prison.

Additional arrests are expected in the case, the attorney general’s office said.

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